Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) is a data collection concept and methodology where an interviewer conducts a face-to-face survey using a portable electronic device, such as a tablet or laptop, to record the respondent's answers directly. The concept emerged in the late 20th century, made possible by the personal computer revolution of the 1980s. The primary problem it solved was the labor-intensive and error-prone nature of Paper and Pencil Interviewing (PAPI), which required a separate, manual data entry step.
In India, the government began replacing PAPI with CAPI in the mid-2010s (2014-2015). The mechanism works by having the interviewer read questions from the device screen and inputting responses, with the software incorporating built-in features like validation checks and skip patterns (or routing instructions). These features enhance data quality by ensuring consistency and completeness at the source, eliminating errors from manual data entry. The CAPI application, which can be Android-based and support multiple languages like the 16 languages used in one survey, stores data locally before synchronizing it to a main server, often in encrypted form. The device can also use GPS to record the interview location, aiding in monitoring and validation.
CAPI connects to other computer-assisted interviewing methods like Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) and Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI). In the Indian context, it was first used in large-scale government initiatives such as the Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance (IBBS) in 2014-2015 and the first Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS) in 2016. The major change has been the transition from PAPI to CAPI, which has remained the standard for large-scale field surveys since its adoption.